Quote:
Originally Posted by tripperazn
Katakana: The rarest of the three usually, used for emphasis on certain words and on loan words
Hiragana: The basic alphabet, usually used for grammar/transitions like "and", "but", "then"
Kanji: Chinese characters that usually are used to write out specific words.
Example Sentence:
おい(1)、マリア(2)、学校(3)に(1)行(3)くよ(1)。 (oi, Maria, gakkou ni ikuyo.) [This is something Nagi might say in Hayate no Gotoku]
1=hiragana 2=katakana 3=kanji
(Hey, Maria, I'm going to school.)
Maria is a foreign name, spelled with katakana. School is a name/word, written in kanji. "oi" is like "hey" a very informal slang term, along with "yo" at the end, which denotes the fact that this person is informing Maria of something, are spelled out with hiragana.
Wrong thread though, should be in the "Learning Japanese" thread.
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Thanks.
And yeah, there is the more specific Learning Japanese thread, but then again last time I checked, Language is part of Culture
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Another question: In Japanese, I see a lot of honorifics on the names, but I can never guess which one is the "first name" and which is the "surname". Korean is a little different I think, so I can't really grasp how it all works.
So when you call someone "First Name-kun/chan" or whatever, does that mean you're closer to the person? Or is it the other way around? From what I can guess, I'd say that calling someone by their surname with an honorific = more respectful term, but even this I'm not sure of. Also, sometimes I see (in anime of course) people calling the others by their "First name" only? Like to use Clannad as an example..
Okazaki's full name = Tomoyo Okazaki (Right? -_-)
Hence, surname = Tomoyo (?)
Thus, "First Name" (of course, in English terms, because English flips the name around) = Okazaki (?). (Need confirmation on these if possible)
And so if someone calls Okazaki simply Okazaki, does that mean they are closer to him?
And if someone calls him just Tomoyo without honorifics, what does that mean? Actually, can you even do that?
Thanks in advance,
A.K.